Tuesday {In the Kitchen} A Paleo Thanksgiving

For this week's post, I thought I'd share with you our Thanksgiving menu. Given that we try to eat as paleo as possible...well, or in my case, as gluten free as possible, our Thanksgiving meals have been a little less traditional than the typical Thanksgiving feast, but amazing and filling nonetheless.

I never realized food could taste this good!!

I am so excited to attempt these Apple Fritters for our Thanksgiving breakfast! They will be the perfect treat paired with a side of scrambled eggs and homemade pumpkin spice lattes (def. not Paleo..but who cares I need coffee) while we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! I found this recipe on PaleOMG! They sound amazing!!! I just bought a donut pan this weekend and I'm can't wait to give them a try!

{Image Credit: PaleOMG}

This year we are spending Thanksgiving away from family, so we decided to open our home up to friends and co-workers who don't have anyone to celebrate the holiday with. We love the community God has blessed us with and want everyone to feel like they have a place to enjoy good company and good food!

Our dinner will be fairly simple, and since neither myself or the Mr. are huge fans of turkey we started our own tradition last year of making a delicious slow cooked oven roast, using this recipe. 

Our sides consist of roasted brussel sprouts with bacon bits, using this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo and a sweet potato casserole, similar to this one found on Paleoaholic.com.

 {Image Credit: Nom Nom Paleo}

{Image Credit: Paleoaholic.com}

And...doesn't this Chewy Pecan Pie Brittle looks fabulous?! Yes Please!!! Paleo dessert too?? Doesn't get much better than this!

{Image Credit: PaleOMG}

Winter Workout Outfit Inspiration

Winter has officially arrived here in ABQ! It went from gorgeous to down right freezing literally over night last weekend. And we officially saw our first snow atop the mountains.

It may be pretty to see, but the cold sure hasn't been making my early morning gym trips very easy. Lets be serious now, who wants to wake up at 4:40 am to go out in 18 degree weather?! Living in mountain desert terrain may sound appealing, but the mornings and nights are frigid.

Despite the cold, I've been good and have been freezing my way to CrossFit in my crop leggings, tank tops and layered coats. One of these days our WOD will be outside in the miserableness (yes, that is a made up word!) and I won't be nearly as prepared as I'd like to be.

Here are a few pieces I'd love to have in my winter workout wardrobe. Maybe these cute clothes will help get me more pumped about early workouts.

Top, Lululemon

Pullover - Nike

Shoes - Nike

Pants - Under Armour

Bag - Lululemon

Tuesday {In The Kitchen}

Today I thought I'd share a recipe I adapted from a friend of mine back in Dallas. She is strong Christian, has the best personality and is an amazing cook!!! The picture just doesn't do this dessert justice.

This recipe is far from being gluten free or Paleo but it is so good. It's quick, easy and perfect for a night you invite friends over and need a nice homemade dessert.

Here is the recipe I adapted from The Pink Antler:

Apple Cinnamon Galette

Crust:
Pre-made pie crust rolled out

Filling:
2-3 apples, cored and sliced thin
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. Splenda
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl mix sliced apples, lemon juice, Splenda, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg. On a plate roll out the dough. Lay apple slices in a continual circular pattern beginning in the center of the dough and working your way around. Leave a few inches of dough around the edge to fold over once you finish the circular pattern.

Place in the oven and bake for 45 or until crust is golden brown and apples are soft.

**I haven't tried this yet, but I've also considered cooking apples on the stove to soften them before laying them in the pie crust. I think it would give this galette more of an apple pie texture.

Our Moving Binder

I've mentioned before this is our first time purchasing a home and I can tell you it has been a wonderful but also a very intimidating experience. And to be completely honest we are right in the middle of it.

Let me start off by saying purchasing a brand new home is awesome! Our builder agreed to make a few updates to the home as a part of our original offer, so we are very excited to have a somewhat "custom" home. While we didn't build the home from the ground up, we are definitely getting a say in the final finishing touches, which is really cool. But along with purchasing comes a laundry of list of "to-do's" on top of the traditional home buying "to-do" list which includes: negotiating with the seller, to arranging a mortgage, choosing home-owners insurance, packing, canceling/transferring services, canceling current lease agreements, etc.

This massive list of things to keep in order and things to do can be incredibly intimidating, so I decided to cut the stress out of the process before it started by putting together a home purchase/moving binder.

The binder holds everything I need for our home purchase, all the important contact information for our mortgage loans, real estate agents, home builder, etc. It also has monthly calendars so I can easily keep track of all of our meetings and appointments. I've also included a budgeting/finance section as well as a section for floor plans, neighborhood plans/layout and home amenities. Again, this just helps me keep everything I need in one place. And it's easy for me to carry around wherever I go.

I started with a binder from the Martha Stewart line at Staples. I also purchased a set of Martha Stewart post-its that fit right inside the front of the binder. I also used a few dividers I had on hand and one page protector that I also had (to hold, CD's or anything else that didn't fit in the binder).

Here are the dividers I created:
Contacts 
To Do List 
Calendar 
Finances, Mortgage & Insurance 
House Information 
Apt. Move Out Info 
Moving 
Other 

I purchased the contact, to do list, budget and finance templates here through IHeart Organizing's Etsy shop! If you haven't ever checked out her store, you should! She has some excellent templates that would help keep any household organized.

And there you have it! One easy-to-reference place for all our home purchase information!

**By the way, can you tell these images are sooo much better than iPhone pictures?! Yes! I finally got my new camera a few weeks ago and man I am loving it!!!